2015 LA Legislature Regular Session Bills: HB 216 (Hotel/Motel tax for I-Bowl)

[TechAlum05]

The 2015 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature convenes this Monday. The short session will focus primarily on hot-button issues like the State budget, tax credits, higher education spending, and Common Core. The focus here will be to highlight House and Senate bills which are at least somewhat relevant to Louisiana Tech University.

The first bill which will be examined is House Bill 216 sponsored by Reps. Alan Seabaugh, Henry Burns, Mike Johnson, Patrick Williams, and Sen. Sherry Buffington. The bill has to do with the hotel occupancy tax that the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau is authorized to levy. I know this sounds like boring stuff, but I promise it is relevant to Louisiana Tech.

This bill is another chapter in the ongoing effort by the Independence Bowl to secure more money.

http://latechreport.com/2015/04/12/2...-caddo-bossier

[dawg80]

And! I can guarantee this I Bowl Tax will be another political football. You might think, heck, it only affects the S'port/Bossier vicinity, so other legislators across the state should ask the local guys, how they should vote. In other words, if the local legislators support the tax the rest, around the state, you would think, would say, okay, we'll vote yes as well.

But....it doesn't work that way. Well, in some cases, it might. But there will be enough legislators who will use this opportunity:

Okay, I'll vote yes for your tax, if you'll vote yes for my parish getting $10 million to build a new golf course, so me and my friends will have a place to play. Now, if you're a S'port/Bossier legislator you have to ask yourself how important your tax is...

That's the kind of thing that happened with the Tech-LSUS merger proposal. Other legislators, around the state, mostly agreed the merger was a good idea, but....they wanted something in return for their yes vote. Sometimes the price gets too high.

Politics as usual.

[Dawgpix]

And! I can guarantee this I Bowl Tax will be another political football. You might think, heck, it only affects the S'port/Bossier vicinity, so other legislators across the state should ask the local guys, how they should vote. In other words, if the local legislators support the tax the rest, around the state, you would think, would say, okay, we'll vote yes as well.

But....it doesn't work that way. Well, in some cases, it might. But there will be enough legislators who will use this opportunity:

Okay, I'll vote yes for your tax, if you'll vote yes for my parish getting $10 million to build a new golf course, so me and my friends will have a place to play. Now, if you're a S'port/Bossier legislator you have to ask yourself how important your tax is...

That's the kind of thing that happened with the Tech-LSUS merger proposal. Other legislators, around the state, mostly agreed the merger was a good idea, but....they wanted something in return for their yes vote. Sometimes the price gets too high.

Politics as usual.

If I were politicking in BR and I needed to pass a tax vote back home, I'd agree to approve any and all proposals from my fellow legislators. This is the last year of Piyush's vetoeing mode on all NGO appropriations so what does it matter if you approve or disapprove of someone's $10 million golf course.